1这是鹅深渊的时候,火鸡make their wills; The time when Christians, to a man, Forgive each other's bills; It was the time when Christmas glee The heart of childhood fills. 2 Alas! that, when the changing year Brings round the blessed day, The hearts of little Queensland boys Wax keen to hunt and slay? As if the chime of Christmas time Were but a call to prey. 3 Alas! that when our dwellings teem With comfits and with toys? When bat and ball and wicket call To yet sublimer joys? Whatever can't be caught and killed Is stale to certain boys. 4 Strange that, with such instructive things From which to pick and choose, With moral books and puzzle maps That ?teach while they amuse,? Some boys can find no pleasure save In killing kangaroos. 5 Where Quart Pot Creek to Severn's stream Its mighty tribute rolls, There stands a town?the happiest town, I think, betwixt the poles; And all around is holy ground; In fact, it's full of holes. 6 And there, or thereabouts, there dwelt (Still dwells, for aught I know) A little boy, whose moral tone Was lamentably low; A shocking scamp, with just a speck Of good in embryo. 7 His name was Bill. To wallabies He bore an evil will; All things that hop on hinder legs His function was to kill, And from his show of scalps he won The name, Marsupial Bill. 8 His face and form were pinched and lean, And dim his youthful eye: 'Tis well that growing Queensland boys Should know the reason why;? My little lads, 'twas all along Of smoking on the sly. 9 Through this was William small and lean, Through this his eye was dim, Nor biceps rose on nerveless arm, Nor calf on nether limb;? Ye growing boys and hobbledehoys, Be warned by me?and him. 10 His elevated shoulders stood But little way apart; His elbow joints?Oh, poor avail Of mere descriptive art! I would I had an artist man To show them William's ?carte!? 11 And should you ask how such a one A mighty hunter grew, So many flying does outsped, So many boomers slow? Bill owned a canine mate, to which His victories were due. 12 A brute so complex that he set ?The fancy? all agog; Of breed that ne'er found name in ex- hibition catalogue! Oh, would I had an artist man To show them William's dog! 13 On Christmas-eve, at set of sun, A hollow tree he sought; A match, a scratch, a puff, and Bill Was lost in smoke and thought, And ?all his battles o'er again? In fervid fancy fought. 14 No ha'penny thing, no penny thing, No thing of common clay Such brilliant memories evoked, With hopes as bright as they? It was his father's Sunday pipe That Bill had stolen away. 15 For many a time and oft had he Admired the wondrous bowl, The stem, the mouthpiece, and the tout Ensemble of the whole, Until desire of it had grown A portion of his soul? 16 Until desire o'ergrew the fear Of kick, or cuff, or stripe. That eve, when Bill stepped forth from home The guilty scheme was ripe? His right-hand trouser-leg concealed His father's Sunday pipe. 17 And now within a heaven of smoke Against the tree he leant, The while the mellow influence Through all his vitals went, And for the first time in his life He knew what meerschaum meant. 18 So subtly stole the influence His inmost being through, He did not mark the sudden bark That signalled kangaroo, Nor noted that his constant mate Had vanished from his view. 19 His mind and eye were on the pipe And he had just begun To count how many scalps would go To purchase such a one,? When turning round his head, he saw, Against the setting sun, 20 A Boomer! . . . and, as when the waves Close o'er a drowning head, Sudden the whole forgotten past Before the soul lies spread, And all the charge-sheet of a life In one brief glance is read? 21 Ev'n so in instant tumult thronged, About his wildered mind, A thousand shapes of wounded things, Of every size and kind; And some were scalped, and some were maimed And some were docked behind. 22 The kangaroo, the wallaroo, The wallaby was there; The 'possum jabbered in its fright, Sore wept the native bear; The stricken paddamelon moaned Its ineffectual prayer; The battered 'guana fixed on him Its dull remonstrant stare; While tail-less lizards swarmed and crawled About him everywhere; And limbless frogs denounced him with The croaking of despair; And tortured bats with ghostly wings Clung to his stiffened hair;? But suddenly the vision passed, And Bill became aware That he was in the B